Fullerton St. Detroit Is this a good, bad or okay area?

**Richard** · September-09-11, 03:39 PM

The house seems in not bad shape.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MULTI-FAMILY...item4aae6fbca6

Thanks.

**Detroitnerd** · September-09-11, 03:43 PM

Dexter-Davison area has the distinction of being one of Detroit's toughest neighborhoods.

**professorscott** · September-09-11, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Dexter-Davison area has the distinction of being one of Detroit's toughest neighborhoods.

Really? I'm around there all the time and it doesn't seem tough at all compared to some other areas.

**Autoracks** · September-09-11, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by professorscott

Really? I'm around there all the time and it doesn't seem tough at all compared to some other areas.

had a bullshit job running amok with a duffel bag almost a decade back. Terrible job. I would pick a road and talk to everybody i ran into. People in shops, on the street, the gas station etc. Just hustling cheap impulse junk. There were a couple areas that were remarkable in that the overall outlook was just bad. People seemed shady, drama, sirens, and a bad vibe. Dexter and Linwood between Joy and Davison was perhaps the epitome of this. Regardless there was money to make thru there. Nobody had money but they were willing to spend what little they had on stupid items that nobody needs. I could tell stories but i wont

btw, no offense if any of you live thru there. There are decent people everywhere

**animatedmartian** · September-09-11, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by Autoracks

People seemed shady, drama, sirens, and a bad vibe.

Pretty much this. There's more petty crime than there is violent crime. But crime is crime and it's easier just to avoid it if you can.

And typically, the older folks actually respect the neighborhood and there are people who are down to earth, but I could say there are just as many people who'll eyeball you and your belongings to make a quick buck.

**Zacha341** · September-11-11, 07:34 AM

It depends on what you've 'adapted' to... rendering the rough to seem normal - ala a day in the 'hood. Like the the 'new norm' but IMO it's gotten pretty grim around there.

The decline started about 10 years ago with the close of that police precinct at Elmerst and Livernois... The housing crash eroded the property value, middle class residents left... crime increased.

And some abandoned homes in the area are no longer boarded up. Like the torched house where little Mariah Smiths body was found in on Waverly.

And that grim gas station nearbly that sold the cupful of gasoline.

I try not to go to any ghetto-hood gas stations in that area. It simply is not safe, nor is that this a walkable community. Everything is done by car... Even the Dexter bus line is very slow.

For example, I was considering a property on Tyler and declined after I saw what that street has become. Sure, there are some really nice homes architecturally speaking on Fullerton, Tyler etc. that would be great IF they be 'removed' and relocated elsewhere.

Drive 'onto' these streets and you can see what goes on... Things have even gotten worse for the Russell Woods area around Tyler and even Ewald Circle on that other side of Davison that was holding out up thru the last 5 years.

Davison Ave. hosts one of the few McDonalds with bullet-roof glass. Joy...

Dexter particularly is rough - a shadow of what is once was. Some of the occupied streets off Dexter [[including Fullerton) have beautiful brick homes, many with ornate fixtures, leaded glass and marble and plaster. Yet, location... LOCATION!

These are examples of some of the most majestic two-family and single family of Detroit, yet to have to deal with Dexter and Linwood and some of the burnt outs area and blocks... ummm.

Though I do try to patronize that Ace hardware up on Davison near Linwood...

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Dexter-Davison area has the distinction of being one of Detroit's toughest neighborhoods.

**softailrider** · September-11-11, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by Zacha341

It depends on what you've 'adapted' to... rendering the rough to seem normal - ala a day in the 'hood. Like the the 'new norm' but IMO it's gotten pretty grim around there.

The decline started about 10 years ago with the close of that police precinct at Elmerst and Livernois... The housing crash eroded the property value, middle class residents left... crime increased.

And some abandoned homes in the area are no longer boarded up. Like the torched house where little Mariah Smiths body was found in on Waverly.

And that grim gas station nearbly that sold the cupful of gasoline.

I try not to go to any ghetto-hood gas stations in that area. It simply is not safe, nor is that this a walkable community. Everything is done by car... Even the Dexter bus line is very slow.

For example, I was considering a property on Tyler and declined after I saw what that street has become. Sure, there are some really nice homes architecturally speaking on Fullerton, Tyler etc. that would be great IF they be 'removed' and relocated elsewhere.

Drive 'onto' these streets and you can see what goes on... Things have even gotten worse for the Russell Woods area around Tyler and even Ewald Circle on that other side of Davison that was holding out up thru the last 5 years.

Davison Ave. hosts one of the few McDonalds with bullet-roof glass. Joy...

Dexter particularly is rough - a shadow of what is once was. Some of the occupied streets off Dexter [[including Fullerton) have beautiful brick homes, many with ornate fixtures, leaded glass and marble and plaster. Yet, location... LOCATION!

These are examples of some of the most majestic two-family and single family of Detroit, yet to have to deal with Dexter and Linwood and some of the burnt outs area and blocks... ummm.

Though I do try to patronize that Ace hardware up on Davison near Linwood...

The housing stock in Detroit was / is / could be again absolutely beautiful. When I see those beautiful brick buildings neglected, crumbling or stripped it makes me sick.
Compare those dwellings to the new crap they're putting up around the city.

**Zacha341** · September-12-11, 05:27 AM

Isn't that the truth! And indeed a shame to see these properties go down to abandoned hulks.

Originally Posted by softailrider

The housing stock in Detroit was / is / could be again absolutely beautiful. When I see those beautiful brick buildings neglected, crumbling or stripped it makes me sick.
Compare those dwellings to the new crap they're putting up around the city.

**Detroitnerd** · September-09-11, 04:07 PM

I don't know how fair the distinction is, but I've heard lots of stories about Dexter-Davison. One old friend told me to never go down Dexter. I remember after that, I did a demo job on a bombed-out section of Dexter. It was one of the times I had to have my antennae way up working in the city.

Maybe there aren't too many shootings there anymore, but it was the setting of much of Luke Bergmann's recent book "Getting Ghost." He describes the open drug deals in the Coney islands, and one of the drug dealers he follows in the book gets shot to death on Dexter.

I'm guessing you'll see more bullet wounds and knifings around the airport, but Dexter is definitely a troubled area.

**313WX** · September-09-11, 04:13 PM

Yeah, I agree with Detroitnerd.

I would pass on moving into that neighborhood especially.

It looks rough on a cross town ride down Davison alone, though definitely in better shape in Comparsion to McNichols/Davison.

**rjk** · September-09-11, 04:36 PM

I street viewed it and that street doesn't look that bad. Of course a daytime picture only tells you so much. One street over has a little of the creepy feel like the notorious Robinwood street near 7 and Woodward. Not as bad, but it looks like it's on its way.

If the deal sounds too good there has to be something wrong with the house and/or neighborhood.

**Neilr** · September-09-11, 05:01 PM

Russell Woods, one of Detroit's fine old neighborhoods, is located a block or two south of Davison between Dexter and Livernois. When it was developed, it was a substantial, predominately Jewish community. There are many, many former synagogues along Dexter, Linwood, and 14th Streets. Now it's a predominately middle class black neighborhood. Architecturally it reminds me of the University District but with more varied and somewhat smaller houses. There are many beautiful 2-family flats on Buena Vista. Alas, Russell Woods is now a true island neighborhood. The surrounding areas are pretty much devastated.

**Zacha341** · September-11-11, 07:52 AM

Yes, I loved Russell Woods... it is starting to decline now as the older solid homeowners have started to leave [[some retiring to senior residence, or passing away). I know of two prominent elders who left, relocating one to 1300 Lafayette, the other couple retiring to apartment living nearby downtown. What will save that area are new families, determined to keep up their property, vigilant to have create strong block clubs and security.

Originally Posted by Neilr

Russell Woods, one of Detroit's fine old neighborhoods, is located a block or two south of Davison between Dexter and Livernois. When it was developed, it was a substantial, predominately Jewish community. There are many, many former synagogues along Dexter, Linwood, and 14th Streets. Now it's a predominately middle class black neighborhood. Architecturally it reminds me of the University District but with more varied and somewhat smaller houses. There are many beautiful 2-family flats on Buena Vista. Alas, Russell Woods is now a true island neighborhood. The surrounding areas are pretty much devastated.

**softailrider** · September-09-11, 05:12 PM

I remember there was a McDonalds over there on Dexter, not far from Fullerton. They were selling dope out of there. I think the day manager knew about it. They tore that McDonalds down about 7 or 8 years ago.

**Nanska** · September-09-11, 06:11 PM

I grew up on the next block from this house. This house is on the corner and the shrub on the left conveniently hides an abandoned Uhaul truck that has been at the head of the alley between Sturtevant and Fullerton for over a decade. But we don't want the truck removed because it helps keep out the scrappers from our end of the block. Directly behind the house you are considering purchasing is a large fenced lot that the owner of the next house purchased and fenced. He does maintain his property, but he is one of the few left on that block of Sturtevant between Wildemere and Dexter that has the means. The other side of that block of Sturtevant is a horror. Mostly abandoned and burnt houses that have plenty of characters going in and out of them day and night, all year long. We often wish that lightening would strike and burn down all of those houses, since the City does not seem interested in finishing the tear-down.

As for the crime in the area? Well, it is much quieter now. You hardly ever hear gunshots or police cars screeching as was the norm when I visited in the late '90's. I was there to visit earlier in the year and was surprised at how "quiet" the neighborhood is. My Moms says that is because all the criminals know that anybody living over there, ain't got much

If you really want to buy in the Dexter-Davidson area, I would suggest you look on the other side of Dexter in the Russel Woods neighborhood. Still lots of problems over there too, but there are fewer abandoned houses, and the residents of RW are making an effort to maintain their homes. Over on this side of Dexter many people simply can't maintain their aging homes [[ a lot of these houses date from the '30's ) or since they are renting/squatting, they just don't give a damn.

**English** · September-10-11, 09:42 AM

Originally Posted by Nanska

I grew up on the next block from this house. This house is on the corner and the shrub on the left conveniently hides an abandoned Uhaul truck that has been at the head of the alley between Sturtevant and Fullerton for over a decade. But we don't want the truck removed because it helps keep out the scrappers from our end of the block. Directly behind the house you are considering purchasing is a large fenced lot that the owner of the next house purchased and fenced. He does maintain his property, but he is one of the few left on that block of Sturtevant between Wildemere and Dexter that has the means. The other side of that block of Sturtevant is a horror. Mostly abandoned and burnt houses that have plenty of characters going in and out of them day and night, all year long. We often wish that lightening would strike and burn down all of those houses, since the City does not seem interested in finishing the tear-down.

As for the crime in the area? Well, it is much quieter now. You hardly ever hear gunshots or police cars screeching as was the norm when I visited in the late '90's. I was there to visit earlier in the year and was surprised at how "quiet" the neighborhood is. My Moms says that is because all the criminals know that anybody living over there, ain't got much

If you really want to buy in the Dexter-Davidson area, I would suggest you look on the other side of Dexter in the Russel Woods neighborhood. Still lots of problems over there too, but there are fewer abandoned houses, and the residents of RW are making an effort to maintain their homes. Over on this side of Dexter many people simply can't maintain their aging homes [[ a lot of these houses date from the '30's ) or since they are renting/squatting, they just don't give a damn.

I grew up not too far from this neighborhood. Dexter/Davison was my bus stop in high school. I grew up 1 block SE of Davison and Oakman. My family, except for an uncle, have all moved away. But as late as 2004-2005, I was living in my childhood home.

The area has gotten progressively worse during my lifetime. I don't remember a time when it was one of Detroit's nicer neighborhoods, and as a teen in the 1990s, I felt the stigma of not living in Northwest Detroit like many of my friends from Renaissance High School did.

It's a shame. I did love growing up in the West Davison ghettohood. It was bad over there by the 1980s but for all it was worth, you had great people. I remember the last days of Sanders when I was really small, I ate more Wonder Bread from the thrift store than you'd believe, and we lived halfway between Parkman & Richard Branch libraries, which were beautiful through the mid-1990s. There was the Livernois-Davison florist, the Shrine of the Black Madonna bookstore, and [[earlier on) candy from Mim's. There was a dirty, ancient gas station who used to let my mom ride things out till payday with dirty old men who had pictures of naked women on the walls. There was a Spartan store at Livernois and Linwood that was so-so, then terrible, then OK again by the late 90s. There was the auto auction, and the dying remnants of the Grand River-Oakman shopping area, including Kingsway & Home Pride.

There were still well over a million people in the city while I was growing up. Those were terrible years with some of the best people I've ever met. Salt of the earth folks, like our Canadian Jerry Drinkard, whose dad had been the milkman in the neighborhood back when it was still Jewish, and continued as our door-to-door milkman through all the worst years in Detroit, despite robberies and threats, until around 2000, when he retired. There was vigilant Miss Pat across the street who was like Inspector Javert, watching our little block for ANY sign of drug deals or even just general rowdiness, and staying on the 10th precinct. There was our past with our neighbors at the back to watch the alley. Crime was quantitatively worse [[as it was the crack era), but the inner city neighborhoods were more populated, and the schools at least were far more occupied. There wasn't the complete desolation on the West Side back then that there is now.

No, I wouldn't buy on Fullerton just now. But who knows what might happen 20, 30 years from now in our phoenix city? Odder things have happened.

--English, still seeing the essence of youthful jjaba on the Dexter bus.

**Detroitej72** · September-10-11, 10:16 AM

Beautifully said English, Jjaba would be proud!

Your memories sound quite a bit like the ones I had growing up on the eastside during the crack years.

Back to the neighborhood, I worked for Melody Farms in the mid-90's and my first territory as along the Dexter/Davison corridor. I had many small party stores and larger super markets that I called on. Back then, I was impressed with how much commercial activity the area had as compared to the shopping districts on the eastside. I never had any problems there, the people just seemed to be going about their daily business. You could tell the area had seen better days, but it was still struggling along.

**English** · September-10-11, 03:43 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitej72

Beautifully said English, Jjaba would be proud!

Your memories sound quite a bit like the ones I had growing up on the eastside during the crack years.

Back to the neighborhood, I worked for Melody Farms in the mid-90's and my first territory as along the Dexter/Davison corridor. I had many small party stores and larger super markets that I called on. Back then, I was impressed with how much commercial activity the area had as compared to the shopping districts on the eastside. I never had any problems there, the people just seemed to be going about their daily business. You could tell the area had seen better days, but it was still struggling along.

I remember Melody Farms products!!! Whatever happened to it?

You know [[and I think you & I have had this conversation before), I don't think I realized how bad it was growing up. I mean, if you're a kid growing up there, and it's all you know... how do you know any different? I began to realize otherwise in undergrad down South -- I think I've mentioned that some of the kids called the Winn-Dixie near campus the "dirty grocery store." I didn't think it was dirty at all, just older. It didn't have green meat or expired cans. Then I got a job, started traveling and realized that, oh. There's an entire world beyond West Davison.

Coming back to the city after living away for a few years was difficult at first. A year ago, I was so paranoid & weird just being out and about. Now I'm used to being home again. And I miss the old 'hood, but it'll never be the same again.

I really miss jjaba...

**Nanska** · September-09-11, 06:20 PM

And also, many of the houses in this neighborhood heve asbestos issues. If the house has the original plumbing, it also probably has the original abestos wrapping around the pipes in the basement and abestos sheeting on the attic doors.

**softailrider** · September-09-11, 06:36 PM

My Grandparents lived in that apartment buildng on Richton corner of Dexter in the 60's. The building is still there, it's the one with the two white globe things in the front. That neighborhood was getting rough even back then.

All the nice Jewish old ladies making Matzo Ball Soup left the area 50 years ago.

**Wild** · September-09-11, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

The house seems in not bad shape.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MULTI-FAMILY...item4aae6fbca6

Thanks.

Terrible! Stay away!

**stromberg2** · September-09-11, 07:48 PM

Jjaba would be so depressed to hear this.

Stromberg2

**detroitsgwenivere** · September-09-11, 10:28 PM

I used to live off Livernois and Davidson on Cortland for a spell. Dexter/Davidson is kind of a block by block scenario. Some of the houses are gorgeous or need work but have lots of potential. But the farther south you travel, sections of it literally look like the remnants of a WWII bombing. It's surreal.

DetroitPole · September-09-11, 10:52 PM

Originally Posted by detroitsgwenivere

I used to live off Livernois and Davidson on Cortland for a spell. Dexter/Davidson is kind of a block by block scenario. Some of the houses are gorgeous or need work but have lots of potential. But the farther south you travel, sections of it literally look like the remnants of a WWII bombing. It's surreal.

Not to be trite, but as a rule, all of Detroit is a block-by-block scenario. One block you're in Birmingham, the block up you're in The Bowery.

That said, I've never lived someplace in Detroit where I haven't found the salt of the earth. Good people out there just trying to make a go of it.

**Bham1982** · September-10-11, 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by DetroitPole

Not to be trite, but as a rule, all of Detroit is a block-by-block scenario. One block you're in Birmingham, the block up you're in The Bowery.

The Bowery consists of fancy loft condos and luxury hotels nowadays. Not even a hint of grit is left. One of the most expensive parts of Manhattan.

And I don't agree with your characterization of Detroit at all. If it were true, then property values in the safer enclaves would be much, much higher.

One can buy a home for dirt cheap in the University District, Boston Edison, and even Palmer Woods. These communities aren't gated, and the problems in the surrounding neighborhoods do sometimes enter these nicer streets. That's why all these areas have private security patrols, and that's why break-ins and the like are quite routine.

In Detroit, the big difference between the "nice" streets and "not-so-nice" streets is the relative level of violence. There aren't many shootings or drug-related violence in the University District. The folks living in Indian Village and the like don't have that sort of lifestyle.

To be fair, most folks, whether in Dexter Davison or Indian Village, don't have that sort of lifestyle. But enough folks in Dexter Davison have that lifestyle to ruin it for everyone else.